ICAA ‘25: Celebrating Secular Sobriety

By Rady A.

I registered in February for the quinquennial International Convention of AA held in Vancouver, British Columbia in July. Three omens bode well for atheists and agnostics in AA: Secular AA was given three time slots, instead of the usual one; none of the Big Meetings at these Conventions will close with the Lord’s Prayer anymore, and the very first keynote speaker, at the Friday opening ceremony, was a lesbian who didn’t mention any theism, except for her opening comment: “Omagod!”

Omg, is this my kind of AA meeting or what?!?  My tribe got featured at AA’s 90th birthday bash! Joe C, chair of the One Big Tent panel, reported that the organizing committee wanted to hear from minorities – the voices not often headlining AA’s big events. They hit the mark. Secular AA’s three panels hosted ten speakers, and a few other speeches that weekend were nontheistic.

Am I seeing a change a’coming?  In 2017, AA’s 21 Trustees voted unanimously to delist the Toronto Area Intergroup because it asserted in court that it was a religious organization. AA is pretty clear in its preamble, traditions and basic texts that we are not affiliated with any religion. The Toronto Intergroup used that defense because they were sued in the Canada Human Rights Tribunal for delisting the local secular groups. That the Trustees unanimously defended our traditions, and thus secular AA, still fills me with profound relief and gratitude.

I heard more stories, though, at the Convention, about area intergroups across the US still delisting or refusing to list secular groups. I heard about General Service and District Area meetings refusing to hear objections to using prayer at these business meetings. Westside Agnostics was delisted from the Online Intergroup of AA for a bit in the past year and when asked about it, they relisted all the meetings and then denied knowing how or why it happened. Jan B ‘could not find any order to remove.’  OIAA is hosting secular speakers at its November conference, and “secular” is one of its filters when hunting down an online meeting, so the deletion was surprising.

Many people balk at the ridiculous and untrue slogan, ‘You won’t stay sober if you don’t find god.’ But AA newbies, unfamiliar with the traditions, take it as AA truth. A hardening fundamentalism within AA threatens to close the door on agnostics and atheists, or anyone wanting to gain sobriety without having to endure religious instruction. It seems the issue is not going away. Just this year, some lady poked me hard in the shoulder when I didn’t stand up quickly enough for the closing prayer. Hostility toward non-theists is alive and well in AA meetings in 2025.

Many agnostics compromise with the issue by saying, ‘I don’t know about God, I just know that I’m not God.’ But even that idea doesn’t go far enough for me, because my religion teaches that God dwells within me as me; that God dwells within you as you. That ‘unsuspected inner resource’ is my Higher Self, as is the ‘Great Reality Deep Within’ mentioned in the Big Book.

This flies in the face of some external being, which is what the fundamentalists want from all of us – an admission that we ourselves are not the directors of our own lives, our own sobriety. Control must be turned over to a supernatural interventionist deity. My atheist father who stayed sober 56 years until his death would beg to differ.

Maybe the lessons from AA’s focus in Vancouver to hear more from minorities will reach the wider membership. It’ll certainly help that the August 2025 Grapevine issue focuses on atheists and agnostics. Addressing the growing religiosity could reverse AA’s shrinking membership. AA’s own surveys of its membership show that in the 21st Century, AA is growing older, whiter and more male. Pew Research found in 2022 that over 40% of those between 20 and 34 are religiously unaffiliated. Young people seem to be seeking alternative recovery programs that don’t promote AA’s theism.

Secular AA is a safe haven for this demographic who could reinvigorate AA, if only the theists would admit that sobriety without God is not only possible, but preferred by a growing segment of the general population. With AA’s leadership supporting us so openly, secular AA’s continued presence, and our growing body of recovery literature, we may soften the hearts of AA theists. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Or, perhaps AA will survive like a stew, with special interest groups continuing to stick to their own kind, and mainstream AA continuing to grow older, whiter and more male, passionately attached to a religious interpretation of the 12-step recovery process.

Rady is a lifelong member of AA, having started her journey toward sobriety at age 16. No longer in need of religious instruction, she prefers her 12-step meetings to be conducted in practical, non religious terms.